Beyond-Brawn-2nd-Edition

4. Expectations—How Much
Muscle & Might You Can
Expect to Make Real
4.1 How good and strong a physique you can build, and how long it will take,
depend on many factors including age, gender, genetics, training methods
used, motivation, diet, and your rest and recovery schedule. Only you can
find how far you can go by actually going as far as you can go.
4.2 To achieve your potential you need to invest years of effort, investigate different
interpretations of sensible training, find what works best for you, and
fine-tune it according to changes in your lifestyle and level of development.
Real-world targets
4.3 Gauge your long-term goals on the basis of what is realistic for most typical
people who train with weights, provided they give their pound of flesh
and deliver the dedication, determination, effort and persistence that are
needed.
4.4 Long-term goals, however realistic they may be, can seem so impossibly far
off that they lead to discouragement. Keep your medium-term and shortterm
goals foremost in your mind. But project into a long-term perspective
the successful achievement of a run of medium-term goals, and then you
will see the terrific progress you can make after a few years.
4.5 Focus on achieving the next 5–10% gain in all your exercises. If you apply
yourself to this, and keep doing it repeatedly for a number of years, you
will eventually get as big and strong as it is possible for you to become. Your
short-term goal should be to take the next small step to getting to your next
set of 5%- or 10%-poundage-gain medium-term goals.
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